Composting

Ahh....fruit flies. I don't think I've ever met a person who hasn't encountered a fruit fly. Their eggs can be found in banana peels and other fruits and when that piece of fruit has been sitting around too long and starts decomposing, it's the fruit fly's time to shine. The reason I have all this wonderful knowledge of fruit flies is because last summer we dealt with swarms of them in our house. Now now, don't go thinking that we're slobs or that we leave decomposing food lying around the house. Here's what happened:

I was watching a show on cable TV...I think it was on HGTV (a network I became obsessed with during the short time we paid for cable) and they were talking about composting. One of the ways they suggested composting was to use a worm bin. I loved the idea that I could keep these little worms in a container in our house and they would eat up our organic kitchen scraps and I'd be throwing less waste in our trash can. Brilliant! So a couple months later, for Christmas, Scott got me The Worm Factory. Yeah, I'm not the typical woman who wants jewelry or an expensive handbag...I wanted a plastic bin that I could fill up with worms that would eat decomposing food. Anyways, we ordered our little red worms (red wigglers to be exact) and they came in the mail about a week later. Since it was winter and freezing outside I had to make sure that I caught the mailman and that they didn't get left outside (all my little guys would have perished!). We followed the directions and put our worms to work and everything was great. We filled them up with food scraps and they were thriving...then the summer came. Turns out it's not a good idea to put banana peels in the bin in a house with no air conditioning (we have AC now, but that's another story for another day) when it's hot and humid outside. The fruit flies were in heaven! We, unfortunately were not... everytime we went to add food to the bin, we'd lift the cover and 50+ flies would swarm out and disperse. The first thing we did was stop putting peels in the bin but fruit flies can lay a ridiculous amount of eggs in a short period of time so they were breeding like crazy in there. The next step was moving the bin, temporarily to the garage which ultimately solved the problem long term but short term, we still had a ton of fruit flies in our house. With a little help from the internet, we devised traps out of plastic containers with tiny holes in the cover filled with apple cider vinegar. They're attracted to the vinegar and go inside and essentially drown. After a month, our fruit fly problem  was pretty much gone, but it was certainly a lesson learned for our composting operation.

Despite this, composting has been a rewarding process for both of us. We plan on planting a garden one of these springs (also another story for another time) and having this nutrient rich compost to use that is essentially free will be awesome. Scott and I have also done a backyard compost pile in addition to our worm bin.

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll outline some of the basics:

For your outdoor compost pile, you can throw almost anything in there. A few of the big no-nos are any kind of meat product or food with fats in it (like cheese, butter, etc). Vegetable, fruit, bread, egg shells, even pasta is all fair game. That's just from your kitchen. Outside, you can use the leaves you rake up, grass clippings, even small twigs and sticks. You put all these items into your compost container, keep it moist, and occasionally move the mixture around to make sure enough air is incorporated to allow the composting to occur.

With a worm bin, also known as vermicomposting, you go through the process I explained above (minus the fruit flies) though you don’t necessarily need to buy a special container. You can find ideas on how to make one out of an ordinary storage tote. The worms usually like to feed on fruit and veggie scraps but you have to balance it out with some fiber too (think paper, egg cartons, and bread). Depending on how big your container is and how many worms you have…once you get them going, the worms can eat half their weight in food a day, so if you get 1 lb of worms, they’ll eat ½ a pound of scraps each day. Basically the compost you get from vermicomposting is worm poop. They eat the scraps and what they poop out is the nutrient rich compost. Nature is amazing!

I’ve provided an overview of composting but a website I found called HowtoCompost.org has been a great resource and I’d recommend checking it out if you want to start your own composting operation and get ready to plant this spring and summer!

Green Cleaning

Even though its snowing as I type this, I wanted to expand on my spring cleaning entry from last week. Have you ever thought to yourself as you're spraying that bleach cleanser on your bathtub and holding your shirt over your nose..."these fumes can't be good for me"? Now imagine if your children happen to be in the room with you, or you're pregnant. It can be even more worrisome. There's an easy solution to this and it's called green cleaning.
Green cleaning to me means using substances that you already have around your house that are safe to the occupants of your house to do your everyday cleaning. Now I'm going to be honest, I still buy certain manufactured cleaners. I found a great product to use in our dishwasher, it's called Biokleen. A glance at the ingredients is somewhat comforting as there are only 6 of them and they're all natural. I've gone somewhat off track here though, so back to the original topic. Let's say you could clean your house using only things that you deem safe to eat...like vinegar, lemons, and baking soda. Wouldn't that be amazing? Now, I'm not a big fan of eating any of these substances alone but they are all items that most people probably have in their diet on a daily basis. So here's a few suggestions of how to use these products to clean around your house:
1. Most people know you can put a box of baking soda in the refrigerator and freezer to absorb odors. You can also use it to deodorize other things in your home:
- trash can (sprinkle some in the bottom before putting a new bag in)
- carpet (sprinkle some on the carpet before you vacuum)
- garbage disposal (pour some down the disposal with warm water)
2. Baking soda can also be used to clean by dissolving some in some water. You can also sprinkle some on your kitchen sponge to act as a mild abrasive.
3. You can mix equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and use it as an all purpose cleaner in the kitchen, bathroom, and all over the house. If you don't like the smell of vinegar you can add some lemon juice to the solution to neutralize the smell.
4. Lemon juice can be used to dissolve stains on your kitchen countertop, you can also put some on stains on white linens and lay them in the sun and it will act as a bleaching agent. You can also put lemon (or orange) rinds down the garbage disposal to act as a deodorizer.
(As a note, always test these solutions on inconspicuous areas of whatever you’re cleaning just in case!)

The suggestions and products I’ve listed are just a few of a long list of natural cleaners you can use around your house. There are tons of websites and books available with ideas on how to make your household cleaning greener.

The last thing I want to mention is a fantastic natural laundry detergent. It’s another manufactured product that we specifically bought to launder our cloth diapers but we loved it so much we use it on all our clothes now. It’s called Charlie’s Soap and it’s amazing! We bought a 5 gallon bucket (think the size of the orange pails from Home Depot) and I’m pretty sure it’s going to last us for at least 5 years. You only use a tablespoon per load and your clothes come out clean and fresh smelling…not an over powering perfume scent. When I find products like this it really makes me think about all the chemicals we come in contact with and I find when I have any opportunity to eliminate some of them from our everyday lives, I take it!

Good luck with your green cleaning!

Spring is Coming!!

The majority of people don't actually spend that much time in their houses and when they are there, a significant amount of that time is spent asleep. Despite that, I think the average person's goal is to make their home a sanctuary...somewhere where they can relax and forget the troubles of their day, a place that they can enjoy time with their family. During the New England winters, we tend to spend a lot more time indoors and we long to spend time outside of our house. With temperatures reaching 60 degrees yesterday, it really set off a feeling of spring fever for us. I walked outside and breathed in the fresh smelling spring air and a million things popped into my head...thoughts like opening the windows and getting fresh air, summertime, trips to the beach, and cookouts. It also conjured up thoughts of spring cleaning and what the yard is going to look like once that nice white blanket of snow melts away. All those times when I was out shoveling or had someone plowing our driveway in the thick of a snow storm and the snow may have been pushed just a little too far or I thought "I think my fence is over there"...all is revealed in the springtime. Here in New England, spring tends to be a short lived season. One day it's 30 degrees and threatening snow and the next day it's so hot and humid you're saying "uncle" and wondering when fall will arrive. There's only a small window of opportunity to get it all done, hence spring cleaning will be in full swing soon!